Who needs the penny anyway?

piecesofme

more good news for those of us that have been hoarding pre-1982 Lincolns

The first step to this process might take place soon, then all would be needed is for the Govt. to make it legal to melt them for the copper. fingers crossed because I am loaded!

secondrepublic

they will delay the inevitable for as long as possible. that's not a problem... it just gives folks more time to stash away the pre-82 copper pennies.

tnspro

what do you consider 'loaded'?

ricko

Common sense would seem to dictate the move... however, when has common sense ruled in congress. Cheers, RickO

piecesofme

what do you consider 'loaded'?
Lost count in the late '80's, why do you ask? Gonna make me an offer?

Baley

I too was curious what "loaded" means in your or any penny hoarder's context. As in, how much volume does it take to make this worthwhile?

If one were to accumulate one million pennies ($10,000) and it weights over 6600 lbs (3+ tons), how long does it take to accumulate, how is it stored, and what are we looking at as a target? a double? triple? and when

thanks

secondrepublic

The article says "the U.S. could see a $4 billion profit from recovering the nickel, zinc and copper from old coins currently in circulation." I don't know how they came up with that number, or what percentage of that is the copper in pennies. HOWEVER, you can be pretty sure at the slow rate the government is moving, they're never gonna see even a tiny fraction of that money. The profits will be made by people pulling copper cents out of circulation.

secondrepublic

<< <i>how long does it take to accumulate, how is it stored >>



Compared to others, I have only a small amount of copper pennies. It's too much effort and frankly I have too many other things going on, to spend much time at it. As you identified, the main issue with copper pennies is weight, not volume. Someone else can chime in who has more experience, but I've read that a metal 55-gallon type drum will hold 1 ton of pennies. It's really more an issue of finding a suitable place to store it where the floor won't crack under the weight.

Spooly

Yes... dump the penny! But please keep the cent!

tneig

Sorting cents is a fun experiment for a newbie such as myself. Sorting and looking for silver coin deals is teaching me alot about rare and old coins and the profit potential. Cents are cheap too since I still have the outlay money!
More than I can say about the silver I've been buying. LOL

Sorting is maybe better hobby to do when the retirement age threshold hits in 4 years, but I'm not sure if copper cents will be around then, so I'm doing it for fun now. The shinny pennies go to the grandkids, and I'll keep any good 2009s. The nice zinc years will go into newer albums, via the grandkids, and I pluck any nice older items myself. Finding a 1909 was exciting, for a minute or two. I have about forty five copper pounds and I'll wait till copper goes up a bit, then sell (stick someone) on craigs for double face-value. I'll do it when I'm ill for a day or shoulder surgery or something like that where I'm bored and around the house.

The cents have much more value though.
-I used a few boxes as weights to hold a glued picture frame together while it dried.
-When someone wants to borrow money, I give them a box of the zinc pennies, and it solves (gets rid of) two problems real quick.
-When a business asks for a donation, the same applies and they don't ask anymore.
-I use a box to keep the door open. And another two under my desk for proper posture.
-It keeps me tuned too just how bad my eyes are getting.
-The wife doesn't try to organize them or move the boxes around on me, so I at least win this one.
-It's exercise carrying them bank from the bank, and up and down stairs.
-Gives me a reason to go out to lunch (to hit the bank) and get away from work. Oh, and see the girls at the bank.
-If the goverment is dumb enough to keep minting them and wasting my hard earned money, I'll try to recover some of the cost myself.

And the number one reason to sort pennies all the time is!!!!!!!!!:
-The wife sees me doing this and ignores me, -so I have time and stealth to hide my secretly purchased silver and gold coins.

tnspro

no, sorry, no offers comming. Just want to see what people think 'loaded' means. $1k in cents, 2k, 5k, ???

fishcooker

I'd say loaded means enough to make a difference. $10k for starters, $100k more like it.

Pokermandude

I'm certainly not loaded in physical copper. I'd guess at most 30 lbs worth of copper pennies (yes pennies- Canadian ones).

Doesn't cost me anything to quickly toss the copper ones into a separate bucket from the ones I roll up and take to the bank.

tnspro

well, I would think that if someone has the time, energy and resources to amass $100k of copper cents (thats 10million copper cents), they really don't need to do it (for investment/resell purposes) in the first place and are just doing it for skits and giggles! (substitute the "k" for an "h" in "skits")

piecesofme

No long ago on the internet there was a story about a guy that has $2.4 MILLION in copper pennies. Full disclosure: I am NOT that guy lol.

Like I said, I don't even know how much in face I have anymore of it, but I guess what I said about being "loaded" with them is relative after reading what some of you have said. Between my brother's and I that have all been sorting them out since the late '80's, I would estimate we collectively have somewhere around $5k face of them. We are in it all as a group, we agreed when we started that if it ever became legal to melt them that we'd split it all evenly.

yellowkid

The cent, fuggadaboutit

sumrtym

I've probably got about $160-$180 in copper cents. I don't know, I lost count. My OCD side will probably have me count them again some time. I simply store them in large, glass coke display bottle replicas, always careful as heck when moving them so the glass bottom doesn't shatter.

I don't mind pulling copper cents, but I mainly do it for decoration purposes (kind of looks like coke-filled bottles). To actually make a profit at it, I'm always curious how people think they can amass enough to make it worthwhile. As stated before, to get even $10k worth, which I agree is certainly doable, it's quite a bit of work / time / money (transportation of all those pennies for sorting for one). Even if it's something you just do in the normal course of your day, no side trips, the storing is the real issue. That many pennies will easily crack a foundation through weight, and we aren't even talking a huge figure in terms of money. Cracking the foundation of your home for a possible $30k profit, maybe, minus the time value of that money? I guess I jsut don't see it.

How do you advocate storage of huge hoards of pennies? To me, about the only safe way would be if you had sealed containers that can take the weight of the pennies stored directly on the ground, but then you'd also need to make sure they were truly waterproof. That would be a lot of sealed PVC pipes laying / buried in your back yard. Subtract the cost of that too from your profit.

halfhunter

Ever heard of the Portland Mint?

Here

This guy looks like he makes a de - cent living selling & storing of Cu & Ni . . .

HH

morgansforever

Anyone have any ideas on how to separate the Zincolns, from the coppers?
Picking through them is tedious. Suggestions?
I always here 82 and prior, both types were produced that year, I stick with 81 and prior, just sayin.

EDIT: Any thoughts about nickels, 75% copper, 25% nickel, worth hoarding?
If the whole planet is driving electric cars with NIMH batteries, where will nickel and copper be?

aj2525r

Hello,

I'll agree to having some nickels around.

I guess I have about $50 in face value of per-82 cents. I have somewhere around $90 in nickels.

I spend very little time doing it. I'm 44 so it may pay off someday. Sooner if inflation takes off.

tneig

<< <i>Anyone have any ideas on how to separate the Zincolns, from the coppers?
Picking through them is tedious. Suggestions?
I always here 82 and prior, both types were produced that year, I stick with 81 and prior, just sayin.
EDIT: Any thoughts about nickels, 75% copper, 25% nickel, worth hoarding?
If the whole planet is driving electric cars with NIMH batteries, where will nickel and copper be? >>



There is the weight test, the mechanical separation machines, and the drop (sound) test for the 82s, all on Youtube. Especially the comical and funny weight seperation home made sliders.

When I initially hand sort from penny roles, I put the 82s into another container. The amount is small compared to the copper cents so I just haven't bothered. Couple lbs of them vs 45lbs of copper.... I'll just sell them to the buyer for cheap. I enjoy the manual separation and look for goodies.

I think the penny has more initial chance of profit and you can even sell batches of sorted now. Nickels much further down the road. I started this, but the shear bulk vs profit is too thin. For me its just one part of the experiment. I still enjoy the pennies, stopped doing nickels.

-However, you'd likely make a better long term investment by spending the same amount of time working evenings at Wawa, and buying silver when its price is down, which is happening. Then much much later at a hugh high spike, selling silver and converting it to equivalent gold.

braddick

Toll roads in Illinois still use the cent.
Anyone want to guess why?

secondrepublic

<< <i>Toll roads in Illinois still use the cent.
Anyone want to guess why? >>



Hmm... Lincoln penny? Land of Lincoln?

braddick